C802m_ECSG-02-09

Benefits of OFDM for Mobile Broadband Wireless Access

Samir Kapoor s.kapoor@flarion.com IEEE 802 MBWA ECSG November 14, 2002

Key OFDM Air Interface Design Advantages

PHY/MAC Intra-cell interference Fine air-link resource granularity Pilots Power & Timing Control Data Requests & Assignments Fast Acks Other Universal frequency re-use True packet-switched air interface Handoff support

Intra-cell Orthogonality
Repeat portion of each OFDM symbol in cyclic prefix (CP) Gracefully handles large delay spreads; eliminates ISI Aids in synchronization By choosing appropriate parameters, each tone can be made orthogonal, even after multipath delay spread Sinusoid waveforms (tones) are the only functions that preserve orthogonality over multipath wireless channels In contrast, DS-CDMA codes do not have this property, and are not orthogonal under multi-path Significantly simpler receiver design for high data rates No training overhead for RAKE or receiver equalizer

OFDM Symbol Structure

Cyclic prefix Data (N tones)

Tcp

T Tsym

f 1 Time

f 2

f 3

f N Frequency

f = 1/T

Tone Orthogonality

Fine Granularity of DL/UL Airinterface resources

OFDM supports fine granularity in distribution of air-link resources (time-slots, frequency tones)

Logical data frame Tones 1/T

Tsym

Time

Fine Granularity Contd.

Key attribute for multiple access
Smallest transmit/receive unit can be 1 bit Allows for dedicated, lowoverhead control channels, e.g., power control, timing control, uplink requests, etc. Maximizes number of active users supportable

Can avoid inefficient control channels based on messaging with addressing overhead Low cost of starting and stopping transmission of data traffic and control messages Facilitates multiple MAC states to optimize resource allocation and usage per user

Pilots
OFDM allows for time-frequency spaced grid of Downlink and/or Uplink pilots
Allows sharing of DL pilot tones across all users for efficiency and eliminates overhead for data and control frames Supports per-user pilots on UL for coherent demodulation Pilot tones can appear temporally continuous (e.g., mobiles see pilots every symbol time) to accommodate high-Doppler environments Can be used to identify different Base Stations

Power and Timing Control

BS

Power Control
Intra-cell orthogonality in OFDM allows for Mobiles to transmit access requests without time-consuming and interference-generating transmit power ramp-up Supports open- and closed-loop power control techniques for DL and UL

Timing Control
Uplink transmissions synchronized to allow for single FFT in Base Station receiver Slow update rate required even at vehicular speeds Mobiles not actively transmitting and receiving data need only be timing-controlled

Data Requests and Assignments

Packet-switched DL
Base Station can assign DL time/frequency resources with minimal delay Supports large user population with high maintainence data connections

Packet switched UL
Can eliminate contention-based UL data requests Can support deterministic UL data request times
BS Asg

Mobile

Req

Req

data

Fast MAC frame ACKs

BS

ACK/NAK

Can support efficient ARQ ACKs/NAKs for MAC frames

Deterministic ARQ round trip time: Critical to maintaining QoS for highly interactive data services (e.g., Gaming, VoIP) Minimize impact on TCP RTT timer evolution Low overhead: Enabled by fine granularity
Interactive Data

Universal Frequency Reuse

OFDM allows for inter-cell interference averaging via frequency-hopping.
Allows for universal frequency reuse Link budget can be designed for averaged (not bursty) interference Efficient use of expensive licensed cellular spectrum Supports smart antenna techniques for < 1 frequency reuse Enhances ease of deployment; reduces need for network engineering

Packet Switched Air-interface

Suitability for packet-switched UL and DL
Supports fully scheduled DL and UL Allows resource partitioning on a MAC frame basis Supports large number of Active and Dormant users Very low overhead and latency for fast control channels (e.g., frequent MAC frame Acks, Data requests etc) Mobiles not actively transmitting and receiving data only incur timing control overhead UL Contention-based access distinct from data traffic Rich QoS support for multiple traffic types with reduced signaling overhead

Handoffs

BS

BS

Allows for deterministic UL and DL latencies in handoff signaling

Crucial for vehicular speed handoffs Contention-free UL data requests No interference between random access and data traffic Supports multiple simultaneous Mobile & BS air-links

Supports QoS differentiation between random access from new mobiles versus handoff mobiles
Better user experience

Summary
OFDM based Modulation and Multiple-Access is ideally suited for packet-switched Mobile Broadband Air-interfaces Can elegantly achieve a complex balance amongst:
Simple transmitter & receiver design for broadband data rates with vehicular mobility Lightweight, finely granular control structure Supporting a large user population High level of interactivity and low deterministic latencies Embodying spread spectrum principles for interference control Rich QoS feature set